The Sunday Salon: Winter Reading

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I've recently finished reading Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton and the image above seems to capture the cold, bleak beauty from that novella. Many of you are probably sick of the "cold, bleak beauty," but my home is in a place that is often quite warm during the winter months (yes, I live in the Northern Hemisphere) so I like to live vicariously through my reading by creating a seasonal reading shelf for winter. I actually do this four times a year, once for each season. I also crave certain types of reading during the year. Here is how it breaks down for me:

• December through February - Mysteries, Scandinavian fiction, or books with a winter setting (i.e. Father Cadfael mysteries or Henning Mankell books)
• March through May - Fantasy, fairy tales, or books with a spring setting (i.e. In the Forests of Serre, The Enchanted April)
• June through August - Science Fiction or books with a summer setting (i.e. Dune)
• September through November - Books with a creepy or autumn setting (i.e. Something Wicked This Way Comes)

Classics and literary fiction (yes, I understand there is some controversy over the term "literary fiction" but I am using it here because I think most readers will understand what type of book I'm referring to) are liberally added to any seasonal shelf. I particularly like to read Dickens during the winter months though.

Creating a seasonal shelf not only allows me to read seasonally, but it also allows me to address my enormous TBR collection by creating a smaller pool of books to draw from without restricting myself too much. I might read everything on my seasonal shelf or I might read just some of those books. I like to allow myself room to read something I hadn't thought of, to accommodate a sudden urge to join a read-a-long, or to read impulsively ... because reading should be fun!

Do you create seasonal shelves?

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The Sunday Salon is a weekly virtual get together where readers share thoughts about their reading. We write about books and reading on our own blogs and then visit and chat with other saloners through the comments feature.